Fraters Libertas

It's The Same Old Song

Earlier this week in front of a large pro-abortion crowd, Hillary Clinton continued her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 by transparently appearing to reach out to pro-life voters while at the same time re-affirming her commitment to keep abortion legal. From The New York Times (registration required):

"We can all recognize that abortion in many ways represents a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," Mrs. Clinton told the annual conference of the Family Planning Advocates of New York State.

In case anyone were to get the wrong impression from these words, Clinton's legislative director, Neera Tanden, helps to clarify Hillary's message:

"Our focus in the speech was to make sure that she still communicated that she was pro-choice - she doesn't want to undermine that - but she also thinks we can have some common ground among all sides and make abortion rare."

The only common ground Mrs. Clinton wants to share is that abortion should remain legal and that those who oppose it should learn to accept it. She's also said nothing new as we've been hearing this same language for years from the anti-life crowd. They steadfastly support the killing of unborn babies but try to soften that stance to woo some wishy-washy red state voters with the pledge to make it "rare". Hillary went so far as to call abortion "sad" and "tragic" in this instance but, in the end, it's the same old song. She's pro-abortion, period.

The question that needs to be asked of Mrs. Clinton is what other constitutional rights would she seriously describe as sad and tragic when they are exercised? Would the "legal but rare" abortion advocates be so kind as to list all of the other rights Americans enjoy that they feel should only rarely be acted upon?

Is it sad every time someone is protected against unreasonable search and seizure?

Is it tragic that close to 120,000,000 Americans exercised their right to vote in last November's Presidential election?

Should every citizen's right to a speedy and public trial be rare?

Sad and tragic are words used to describe undesirable and unpleasant events, like abortion. God given rights are things people should proudly champion and promote rather than publicly hoping that they occur only in rare instances.

Hillary isn't seeking common ground here. She's seeking common votes with a common message about the continued legalization of common murder.